School Board Savors Mclin's Line On Fees

BOOK BAG

June 21, 1997|By Dave Weber, of The Sentinel Staff

After months of wrangling over who would be their attorney, Lake County School Board members this week settled on a familiar face: that of Walt McLin.

Board members earlier had leaned toward keeping CeciliaBonifay as their legal eagle. When they decided a couple of months ago to put out bid requests for a lawyer, a majority of the board indicated Bonifay might remain their top choice.

Not so Monday, however, when the board quickly lined up behind McLin, who had the job for 14 years before being ousted five years ago when a conservative Christian majority took over the board.

In fact, after listening to pitches by Bonifay and Jerri Blair, who also wanted the lawyering job, board members seemed to heave a collective sigh when McLin began telling them how they should deal with their attorney.

First off, McLin said, keep an eye on legal fees. Attorneys can run them up, he said.

Secondly, he said, don't jump into a costly legal fight at the slightest provocation. McLin called this an ''imaginary conflict.''

The example that immediately came to mind for some, including School Board member Jimmy Conner, was the folks in Mount Dora who offered to raise $1.4 million toward restoring Roseborough Elementary.

Instead of welcoming the gift, the School Board decided to tear down a large section of the school, to the consternation of preservationists who filed suit. Legal costs to taxpayers so far: $12,000.

Superintendent Jerry Smith did not have a say on who the board chose for attorney. Board members made it clear that choosing an attorney was their prerogative.

But Smith was pleased that McLin got the job. Insiders had said McLin was Smith's choice from the start.

McLin had a reputation for keeping legal costs down for the School Board when he served as board attorney from 1978 through 1992.

Most notable was a long-running discrimination suit filed in 1973 by black school district employees, who lost out on administrative jobs when the county's schools were desegregated in the late 1960s.

A federal judge in 1981 ruled that blatant discrimination occurred, but school officials continued to fight hard for three more years and even talked of an appeal as the court pondered damage payments due to a dozen black employees.

The School Board racked up more than $1 million in legal bills - in 1970s and early 1980s dollars - from an Orlando attorney before asking McLin to step in and get a settlement, which he quickly did.

The settlement cost the board another $1 million in cash payments to the employees. But by then some school officials had come to accept that the cost of continuing a legal battle that might go on for years was more expensive than the settlement.

''We need to cut the best deal and run,'' said the late Charles Beals, newly elected to the School Board at the time.